Police are investigating secret camera footage that appears to show terriermen for a hunt previously supported by MP Jacob Rees Mogg blocking an active badger sett just hours before the chase began.
The video clip, taken in Somerset, appears to show the men, who worked for the Mendip Farmers Hunt, digging into spoil heaps and filling the sett entrances with mud, which would be illegal.
It would have stopped badgers, which are protected by law, from returning to their sett homes.
According to saboteurs who placed the covert cameras in Somerset, the Mendip Farmers Hunt arrived for a meet soon after the terriermen blocked the holes, then spent about an hour hunting surrounding woods, using horns to encourage the hounds.
Hunters block badger setts to prevent foxes using them to take refuge in underground, which prolongs the chase of the wild animals.
But tampering with a badger sett is an offence under the Protection of Badgers Act, and the Mendip Hunt Sabs sent the footage to police.
The Mendip Farmers Hunt has been a favourite of the North East Somerset MP’s.
It’s understood his wife was master from 2012 to 2014, and his children have ridden with them.
In 2019 Sir Jacob was accused of hosting a fox hunt when a badger sett was also illegally blocked. In March this year he again was said by saboteurs to have hosted the hunt on his land.
Saboteurs said about 25 riders were out with the Mendip, many of whom were children, with several supporters following them in cars. It happened at Christmas but the footage has emerged only now.
A spokesperson for the activists said: “Hounds were sent through thick scrub and brambles where no human could ever have gone through to lay a trail.
“The hunt are really unpopular in this area and we heard the disgust of plenty of local residents before and during the meet.”
Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed this week pledged to eliminate foxhunting under the guise of trail-hunting in Labour’s first term in power – closing what is widely considered a “loophole” in the 2004 ban.
In December Luke Pollard, a former shadow environment secretary, had said the party would ban the practice in England and Wales.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said an investigation was continuing into the alleged tampering of a badger sett in Peak’s Girt Wood, near Litton, adding: “Officers have carried out a number of enquiries following the incident, including visiting the site and scheduling voluntary interviews with two suspects.”
C’mon @UKLabour @Keir_Starmer @AngelaRayner @SteveReedMP please get a rock solid pledge in your manifesto that assures us that you would put a complete end to this unspeakable barbarity once and for all . If you want our votes we want a promise to protect our wildlife . Please RT https://t.co/CICPowjjC8
— Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) December 23, 2023
Wildlife TV star Chris Packham had called on Labour, if it wins power, to properly enforce the legal ban on foxhunting after footage emerged of hunt supporters in the Midlands allegedly smashing vehicles.
“They throw live foxes to a pack of dogs to be torn apart and laugh about it,” he posted on social media. “They smash people’s vehicles up with impunity.”
Northants Hunt Saboteurs claim they have been subjected to increasing violence in recent weeks by balaclava-wearing hunt “mobs” who have dragged women protesters through mud, blocked their cars in, used hammers to smash windscreens, and kicked and shoved opponents.
Fox hunting should be consigned to the history books.
— Luke Pollard MP (@LukePollard) December 27, 2023
That’s why if elected, the next Labour Government will close the fox hunting 'loophole' https://t.co/iugPjmomKy
Late last month, householders in Dorset said they were enraged when hunt hounds ran through gardens, and hunt saboteurs who said they were trying to uphold the law “came under serious intimidation”.
“Sabs were driven at, a horse crashed into the side of a sab wagon, blocking of roads and abuse and threats that narrowly avoided a full-scale battle,” North Dorset Hunt Sabs reported.
In Devon, an elderly person was knocked over when hunt dogs reportedly ran through gardens.
The Wildlife Guardian organisation reported that the hundreds of horses at an animal-assisted therapy centre in Hampshire were terrified when a pack of hounds ran into their field, before running in front of cars on a road, leaving a driver shaken up.
The Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt, in Dorset, were temporarily suspended by governing body the British Hound Sports Association last month, after video footage showed a fox being killed by dogs in a farmyard during a trail hunt.
Thinking of attending a Boxing Day hunt meet? This is what ‘trail hunts’ get up to. Shocking footage released today by @HuntSabs
— Protect the Wild (@ProtectTheWild_) December 22, 2023
Please RT if it’s just one thing you do today. Get these faces everywhere.
https://t.co/kMwhAcbSlY
Saboteurs in Nottinghamshire and East Sussex said their vehicles had been attacked. In one case, it was claimed masked men kicked and beat an RAF veteran sitting in a stationary vehicle, leaving him needing hospital treatment.
Footage showed attackers hurling a tyre at the windscreen to smash it.
A spokesperson for the Countryside Alliance said: “The Countryside Alliance is against all forms of violence and intimidation, even in the case of extreme provocation. We encourage those with evidence of such offences to make complaints to the police so matters can be investigated appropriately and that those responsible for any illegal activity can be brought to justice appropriately.”
The Independent asked Sir Jacob, the Mendip Farmers Hunt and the British Hound Sports Association (formerly the Hunting Office) to comment on the terriermen footage but did not receive a reply.
